Meditation is great for kids, teens, and college students with anxiety. It’s important to help you let go of control.

Mindfulness should be more than an “every now and then” kind of thing.

If you only practice mindfulness when you’re already upset, you may calm down in the moment - but it’s harder to reach for the skill when you need it. It’s much more effective to set up a daily practice, and really reinforce this skill.

The foundation for all of this? Being in the moment.

So today, let’s practice just sitting.

Sleeping is crucial to our wellbeing.

When we get a full night’s rest, we’re better able to handle the challenges of our day. Our bodies are rested, our brains are active, and we’re more able to utilize our pre-frontal cortex to think through the pros and cons of how we’re interacting to the world around us.

A lack of sleep impacts everything.

We’re grumpy, we’re less focused, and we’re more stressed out. Our brains produce more stress hormones on less sleep. And a lack of sleep builds and builds - one day vs. seven days has a huge difference.

In fact, kids who don’t get enough consistent sleep can be misdiagnosed with ADHD.

They’re more prone to hyperactivity, impulsivity, and poor reasoning.

So when your child can’t sleep, or won’t sleep, you know it’s a big deal. How can you help?

Stress Is Contagious

This week I have my top three tips to avoid catching someone else's stress. Because, a lot of times, it can feel like anxiety and stress loves company.

1. You have your space, I have mine:

Stress can rub off on you if you let it. Just remember that you are only in charge of yourself, and that means you have this great opportunity to take a step back and focus on you. Sometimes you may want to literally take a step back and go to your office, or take a quick break outside to reconnect with yourself.

…

The more tips the better, right?

Mindfulness, yoga, and scheduling it in. Relaxation is great, but it's important to practice throughout the day. When you operate with anxiety, the baseline of your stress level is typically pretty high. You may have a small "window of tolerance," meaning stressors that seem small to others feel very big to you. So, let's look at my top three recommendations, which I share with all of my clients.

Managing anxiety is tough.

And it can be hard to focus on anything else when it feels like anxiety is at the forefront of your mind. It gets in the way of schoolwork, family time, stuff with friends or romantic partners. 

If you deal with anxiety on a regular basis, you also probably know how it builds over time. Sometimes it builds slowly, until you suddenly realize that you're way too stressed out. Other times, it seems to skyrocket and you're left dealing with a very unexpected panic attack.

We've come to the end of our 6 week series, so now is a great time for reflection. What was your purpose in picking up this mindfulness practice? Was it to practice anxiety management through meditation? Were you looking for tools to help your child with their anger? Figure out what the root of this was. And, while we can't change people around us - and we can't change what our children do or don't do - we can demonstrate healthy listening and coping skills for them.

Our minds are always churning out lots of thoughts. So it can be helpful, during a meditation practice, to table these thoughts for later. In this week's post, I discuss a visualization tool: thought bubbles. When you allow your thoughts to drift away, you can focus more on your stillness, calming your brain and your body. A critical tool for kids, teens, and parents!

Week 3 and we're halfway there! Today we practice mindful breathing - a fundamental skill so basic you may think you already know it, but trust me - there's room for improvement. Also included in this week's lesson, tips for training your children how to intergrate mindful breathing into their life as well. 

Week 2 of our mindfulness series, and we're exploring how to scan your body for emotions. It's important to be aware of where you hold stress, anxiety, or frustration, as everybody's body is different. And when you're able to identify these trigger points, it's much easier to find 1. where you should focus during your relaxation practice and 2. where you need to check in to make sure your emotions feel controllable. 

"Mindfulness" is probably a word you hear a lot, especially if you're looking for anxiety or anger management strategies. In this upcoming six week series, you'll find out the purpose or mindfulness, how to integrate it into your day-to-day life, and fundamental strategies for using it. This week, we're all about just finding a seat.